Whitewater rush

After a great road trip driving through France, Jim and I are now happily settling into a summery and very beautiful Les Gets. When our first guests last week asked us to join them whitewater rafting down the river Dranse, we jumped at the chance to experience the thrills and spills of our local river.

Stephan, our guide, was brilliant and took us through the motions before we left the base. We got kitted out with really good wet suits, and drove the short distance to where our whitewater adventure began.

We had opted for the ‘Special’ run, which incorporates some level 3 and 4 rapids. None of us had been before, but with Stephan’s instructions and steering were soon plunging through the rapids and bouncing between rocks, loving every minute.

After some fantastic rapids which saw everyone get drenched, and the boat jumping feet into the air, we stopped off at a little cove where we were all surprised to hear Stephan ask, ‘Do you want to jump off that?’, pointing to a 7m high cliff! ‘Hell yes!’ was the general response (I’m sure we were all so revved up from the rapids we weren’t thinking straight!), so bursting with excitement and trepidation we clambered our way up the rocks until we were all stood over the deep, fast-flowing river. One by one, we hurled ourselves off into the swirling waters beneath, paddling to the boat as hard as we could once we’d re-surfaced so that we didn’t get carried too far down the river.

More rapids – sometimes going down backwards – and more rocks to jump off – the second time somersaulting into whitewater and letting the river carry us down stream like a flume – and an hour or so later we arrived back at the base, smiling form ear to ear. What an adrenaline rush!

Aventure Nature also do hydrospeeding (going down the rapids on a glorified lilo with flippers), kayaking and hot dogging (2 people on one small dingy). The ‘Special’ run was great for those who want the excitement of some bigger rapids (45€), but we could have chosen the ‘Classic’ (€38) which goes at a slightly more civilized pace. We had an awesome day, and can’t wait to try the 3-hour run (€59), with bigger rapids and more thrills!